Splicers



Oct. 10, 1967 H. D. POST ETAL SPLICERS 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 19, 1962 Hill! INVENTORS Harm a n D Pa;[- E d uar 1 P17, P

United States Patent 3,346,437 SPLICERS Herman D. Post, Great Neck, and Edward Perper, Brooklyn, N.Y., assignors to Robins Industries Corporation, Flushing, N.Y.

Filed July 19, 1962, Ser. No. 210,956 1 Claim. (Cl. 156505) The present invention relates to splicers.

More particularly, the present invention relates to splicers which are adapted to form splices in tape such as sound-recording tape.

In splicers of this type the ends of the tape which are to be spliced together are placed one over the other and a diagonal blade cuts through the overlapping end portions of the tape whereupon the free end portion of the upper tape which is severed by the diagonal blade is removed and a piece of adhesive is placed along the abutting portions of the tape at the diagonal cut. Then the adhesive and some of the tape itself is trimmed away along the edges of the tape so as to complete the splice and when the spliced tape is removed from the splicer the remaining piece from the lower end portion is removed.

In splicers of this general type there are certain difficulties which as yet have not been eliminated. For example, the cutters are usually carried by a turnable arm which is urged by a spring to a rest position where it extends upwardly from the remainder of the splicer so that the splicer occupies a much larger amount of space than would be the case if the cutter-carrying arm remained in a lower, more or less horizontal position next to the remainder of the splicer. Furthermore, difiiculties are encountered with respect to the adhesive material which is used to join ends of the tape together at the splice. This adhesive material because of its tacky nature tends to cling to various parts of the splicer and to render the operation far more inconvenient than would be the case if the adhesive material could be easily handled in such a Way that it would contact only the tape which is to be spliced and no other parts of the splicer. In addition, the cutters are not as easily shiftable as might be desired between positions providing the diagonal cut and the trimming cut, and furthermore the various parts of the splicer are not assembled as easily as might be desired.

It is accordingly a primary object of the present invention to provide a splicer with an easily operable means capable of releasably holding the cutter-carrying arm in a lower, more or less horizontal position when the splicer is not in use so that when the splicer is not inuse it is quite compact and will not occupy an undesirably large amount of space. Furthermore, the fact that the cuttercarrying arm can be releasably maintained, when the splicer is not in use, in a lower, more orless horizontal position maintains the cutting blades in a position where they are not exposed and likely to cause accidental injury.

A further object of the present invention is to provide for a splicer of the above type a structure which is capable of guiding the adhesive material to the tape Wln'ch is to be spliced in such a way that only the tacky surface of the adhesive material will engage the tape and the tacky surface of the adhesive material is maintained reliably away from all other parts of the splicer so that it is convenient to manipulate the adhesive material with the structure of the invention without risking clinging of the adhesive material to undesired parts of the splicer.

It is furthermore an object of the present invention to provide a splicer of the above type which can .be very easily and quickly assembled while at the same time reliably maintaining all of the parts of the splicer in their assembled condition.

Yet another object of the present invention is to pro- PICC vide a splicer most of the components of which can be inexpensively molded from a suitable plastic material so that the cost of the splicer will be maintained low when manufactured under mass-production techniques.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a splicer of the above type with a relatively large, easily graspable element available to the operator for shifting the cutters between the cutting and trimming positions so that the shifting thereof can be carried out very easily and conveniently.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a splicer which is characterized by its extremely simple and inexpensive construction as well as its reliability in operation.

With the above objects in View the invention includes, in a splicer, a cutter-carrying arm, a support means, and a pivot means which supports the arm on the support means for turning movement between a lower-cutting position and an upper-inoperative position. A spring means cooperates with the arm to urge it to its upper inoperative position, and in accordance with the present invention a simple, releasable holding means capable of being actuated by the operator is provided for releasably holding the cutter-carrying arm, when the splicer is not in use, in the vicinity of its lower-cutting position so that in this way when the splicer is not in use the cutter-carrying arm does not extend upwardly from the remainder of the splicer and thus does not cause the splicer to occupy an undesirably large amount of space and at the sametime does not position the cutters at a location where they can he accidentally engaged so as to cause accidents.

The support means of the splicer includes a bottom surface which is adapted to engage a table or the like and a horizontal wall located at an elevation higher than this bottom surface and formed with an opening. An anvil is carried adjacent this opening and the support means supports a roll of adhesive material which has a tacky side and a non-tacky side in such a way that the non-tacky side engages the underside of the horizontal wall while the adhesive material passes through the opening to the anvil with the tacky side of the adhesive material directed toward the anvil, so that in this way the adhesive material will not have its tacky surface placed in engagement with any of the components of the splicer except the tape on the anvil.

In addition, with the splicer of the invention the cutter-carrying arm as well as holding arms for holding the tape which is to be spliced are pivotally supportedon a shaft whose ends are received in a pair of slots, respectively, formed in a pair of substantially vertical walls of the support means. The support means carries springs which engage the tape-holding arms to maintain the latter either in lower, tape-holding positions or in upper, inoperative positions, and the spring means urges the tape-holding arms as well as the shaft on which they are pivoted in a direction which will maintain the shaft in engagement with ends of the slots so that in this way this spring means also serves to maintain the parts in their assembled condition. V

The novel features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in particular in the appended claim. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a splicer constructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the splicer of FIG. 1, and FIG. 2 shows in dotted lines an inoperative position of the cutter-carrying arm as well as the manner in which a re-' leasable holding means is actuated to release this arm for -2 ovement between the solid and dotted positions of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a front end view of the splicer with the cuttercarrying arm thereof raised to its inoperative position;

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along line 44 of FIG. 1 in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 5-5 of FIG. 1 in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 6 is a side view of the releasable holding member of the invention;

FIG. 7 is a front view of the releasable holding member of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a transverse sectional view of the support means of the splicer of the invention, FIG. 8 being taken along line 88 of FIG. 4 and showing only the support means without the remaining components;

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary view of the support means of FIG. 8 taken along line 99 of FIG. 8 in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 10 is a top plan view of the support means shown only with the anvil; and

FIG. 11 is a fragmentary view of part of the support means of FIG. 10 taken along the line 11-11'of FIG. .10 in the direction of the arrows. 7

In the splicer of the invention the cutters are carried 7 by a cutter-carrying arm which is shown most clearly in FIGS. 3 and 4. As is apparent from FIGS. 3 and 4 the cutter-carrying arm is in the form of an elongated channel member having parallel side walls 21 interconnected by a flat wall 22. This wall 22 is formed with a longitudinal slot 23, and at its right end, as viewed in FIG. 4, the channel member has an end wall 24. As is apparent from FIG. 3 this end wall 24 is stepped and threadedly carries a screw 25 which forms an adjustable stop means for a purpose described below; Adjacent its left or rear end, as view in FIG. 4, the walls 21 are respectively formed with aligned openings through which a shaft 26 passes. In this waythe arm 20 is turnable on the shaft 26.

The cutters are carried by a body 27 which is located within the channel member 20. The cutter-carrying body 27 fixedly carries a blade 28 which is adapted to cut diagonally through a pair of overlapping tape end portions which are to be spliced together, and this blade 28 is riveted, for example, to a projection of the body 27 at the underside thereof so that when the arm 20 is in the position of the FIG. 4 the blade 28 will have its lower cutting edge extending downwardly and located at the lowermost part of the blade 28 so as to cut through the tape which is to be' spliced, and a yieldable resilient member 29 of foam rubber or the like is located alongside of the blade 28 and also fixed to the body 27.

A downwardly directed projection of the body 27 extends between a pair of trimming cutters 30 which are of an arcuate configuration and have their convex surfaces directed toward each other, and these trimming cutters 30 are also riveted to the body 27 and a yieldable resilient member 31 of foam rubber or the like is located between the trimming blades 30. Cutting blades similar to the blades 28 and 30 are shown in US. Patent 2,778,420 which shows a splicer which will form a splice in the same way that the splicer of the invention forms a splice.

The channel member 20 forms an inner channel member which is longitudinally nested within an outer channel member 32 which is longitudinally slidable with respect to the inner channel member 20. The outer channel member 32 has a pair of projections 33 which extend into the slot 23 and have end faces flush with the inner surface of the wall 22 of the channel 20. Screw members 34 fasten the body 27 to the projections 33 so that with this construction the outer channel member 32 can be longitudinally shifted along the arm 20 so as to move the body 27 and the cutters therewith from the left end position shown in FIG. 4 where the cutter 28 will cut diagonally across the tape to a right'end position, shown in dotted lines in FIG. 4, where the trimming blades 30 will trim the splice. The channel 32 has at its right end, as viewed in FIG. 4, an end 7 wall 35 which closes the right end of the channel member 32, and because the outer channel member 32 embraces the inner channel member 20 this outer channel member 32 provides a relatively large, easily-graspable element capable of being engaged at its outer side surfaces so that the operator can easily' shift the cutters between the solid and dotted line positions indicated in FIG. 4. The movement of the body 27 to the right, as viewed'in FIG. 4, is limited by engagement'of this body 27 with the screw 25 shown in FIG. 3, so that in this way the position of the trimming cutters 30 relative to the tape can be adjusted, and the left end position shown in solid lines in FIG. 4 is determined by engagement of the left projection 33 of FIG. 4 with the left end of the slot 23, as viewed in FIG. 4.

The 'shaft 26 in addition to passing through the openings in the rear portions of the side walls 21 of the cuttercarrying arm 20 passes through bores which are respectively formed at the rear end portions of a pair of elongated holding arms 40. These bores of the arms 40 which receive the shaft 26 also extend through sleeve portions 41 of the arms 40, these sleeve portions 41 being integral with the arms 40 and serving as spacers to determine the distance between the arms 40 and the cutter-carrying arm 20, as is particularly apparent from FIG. 3. 'Thus, the shaft 26 also serves to pivotally support the holding arms 40'between which the cutter-carrying arm 20 is located.

The shaft 26, which thus forms a pivot means which supports the arms 20 and 40 for turning movement, is itself carried by a support means 42. The support means 42 is made preferably of a rigid plastic material and at its underside has several hollow chambers, as is particularly apparent from FIGS. 4 and 8, so that the structure of the support means 42 is quite rigid. The support means 42 has a bottom surface 43 which is adapted to rest on any table or the like, and located at an elevation higher than the bottom surface 43 is a substantially horizontal wall 44 (FIGS. 4 and 8) which thus has an underside which is directed downwardly. The horizontal wall portion 44 of the support means 42 extends between a pair of substantially vertical wall portions 45 (FIGS. 4 and 8), and these vertical wall portions 45 are respectively formed with vertically extending, aligned slots 46 which extend upwardly from the wall 44 and which are shown in FIGS. 5, 8 and 9. The walls 45 have portions 47 which overlap the upper ends of the slots 46, these upper ends being of semi-circular configuration, so that these portions 47 have surfaces which are directed toward each other, and the shaft 26 is indicated in dot-dash lines in FIG. 8 with its end portions in the slots 46 and with its end faces located adjacent and directed toward the portions 47 of the support means 42, so that these portions 47 prevent axial movement of the shaft 26 while at the same time the location of the ends of the shaft in the slots 46 serve to connect the shaft and the structure carried thereby to the support means 42.

The wall 44 is formed in its upper face with a pair of elongated grooves 48 shown in FIGS. 8 and 10, and these grooves 48 respectively receive the leaf springs 49, one of which is shown in FIG. 5. As is apparent from FIG. 5 the leaf springs 49 press upwardly against the holding arms 40, respectively, and therefore act through the arms 40, which are respectively located over the leaf springs 49 and the grooves 48, on the shaft 26 to yieldably maintain the latter in the position indicated in FIG. 8 where the shaft is positioned at the upper ends of the slots 46. Thus, the springs 49 serve to maintain the parts in their assembled condition.

In addition, it will be noted, particularly from FIG. 5, that each holding arm 40 has a rear surface portion 50 which extends at substantially right angles to a surface portion 51 which is engaged by the spring 49 in the position of the holding arm shown in FIG. 5. As a result of this feature when the surface 51 of each holding arm 40 is engaged by the spring 49 the holding arm 40 will be yieldably maintained in the position shown in FIG. 5, While when the operator turns the holding arm 40 upwardly from the position shown in FIG. 5 the surface 50 of the holding arm 40 will snap into engagement with the crest of the leaf spring 49 and this leaf spring will now releasably maintain the arm 40 in a position extending upwardly from the support means 42, and this position will be maintained turtil the operator again returns the arm 40 back to the position shown in FIG. 5. Each arm 40 fixedly carries at its underside a member 52 of foam rubber or the like.

It should be noted that the shaft 26 and all of the structure carried thereby can be very easily assembled and disassembled from the support means 42. Thus, assuming that it is desired to remove the shaft 26 and the parts carried thereby from the support means 42, then all that is required is to depress one of the arms 40 in opposition to the spring 49 so as to lower the adjacent end of the shaft 26 below the adjacent portion 47 of the support means 42, and then the operator can with a relatively rigid elongated member such as a screwdriver or the like engage the other end of the shaft 26 and shift it longitudinally so that the depressed end of the shaft 26 will move below the portion 47 while the other end will be displaced out of the slot 46 into the space between the walls 45, and then the operator can easily lift the shaft 26 and all of the structure carried thereby away from the support means 42. The structure can be very easily reassembled with the reverse of these operations, so that the springs 49 While maintaining the parts in their assembled condition do not render it dithcult to disassemble the parts.

As is particularly apparent from FIG. 3, a wire spring 55 is coiled about the portion of the shaft 26 which is located between the side walls 21 of the cutter-carrying arm 20, and one end of the spring 55 engages the underside of the wall 22 while the other end of the spring presses against the upper surface of the wall 44, so that this spring 55 urges the cutter-carrying arm, and all of the structure carried thereby, to turn from the lower operative position indicated in FIG. 4 to the upper inoperative position shown in FIG. 3 and indicated in dotted lines in FIG. 2.

It is apparent, therefore, that if this structure as described above were allowed to remain at rest under the conditions described above the arm 20 would extend upwardly in the manner shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 when the parts were at rest, and as a result the splicer would occupy more space in its inoperative position than in its operative position, because the cutter-carrying arm 20 would extend upwardly from the support means 42, and furthermore the blades 28 and 29 would be exposed so that accidents might occur. In order to avoid these undesirable results there is provided, in accordance with the present invention, a releasable holding means which, when the splicer is not in use, releasably holds the cutter-carrying arm 20 in its lower, operative position shown in FIG. 4 and shown in solid lines in FIG. 2. The releasable holding means is formed by the member which is illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7. The releasable holding means is formed from a single body of plastic, for example, and has an upper elongated wall 61 with which an upwardly extending central handle 62 is integrally formed. The releasable holding means 60 also includes a portion 63 formed integrally with the wall 61 and extending downwardly from a central rear portion thereof, as is apparent from FIG. 7, and this downwardly extending portion 63 has at its front face a pair of ribs 64 located at the outer side edges of the portion 63.

As is apparent particularly from FIG. 4, the support means 42 includes a vertical wall portion 65 which is integral with and extends upwardly from the rear portion of the horizontal wall 44, this wall portion 65 extending between the side wall portions 45. As may be seen from FIG. 4, when the cutter-carrying arm 20 is in its lower operative position illustrated in FIG. 4 the rear end of the arm 20 is spaced from the wall 65 to define a gap 66 therewith, and the arm 20 has a rear face 67 directed toward the wall 65 and spaced therefrom by a distance which determines the width of the gap 66. The width of the gap 66 is only slightly greater than the thickness of the portion 63 of the releasable holding means 60 at the ribs 64 thereof, so that with the arm 20 held down in opposition to the spring 55 in the position shown in FIG. 4 the operator can slip the releasable holding means 60 at its portion 63 into the gap 66, and the upper wall 61 of the releasable holding means 60 will rest on the arm 20 and will extend between the side walls 45, as is apparent from FIG. 1 as well as FIG. 2. Thus, with the releasable holding means 60 located in its releasable holding position where its portion 63 is in the gap 66 and where its wall 61 extends between the walls 45 of the support means 42 the spring 55 while tending to turn the arm 20 upwardly serves only to press the rear face 67 thereof against the ribs 64 and thus press the rear face of the portion 63 of the holding means 60 against the wall 65, and in this way the arm 20 cannot turn upwardly at this time so that when the splicer is not in use the releasable holding means 60 serve to maintain the arm 20 in its lower, operative position where on the one hand the cutters 2S and 30 are not exposed and where on the other hand the entire splicer occupies less space than where the arm 20 extends upwardly so that the entire splicer is more compact as a result of the releasable holding means 60. When the operator wishes to use the splicer he simply depresses the arm 20 slightly and lifts the releasable holding means 60 out of the gap 66, as indicated in dotted lines in FIG. 2, whereupon, when the operator releases the arm 20, the spring 55 will immediately move it upwardly to the position shown in FIG. 3 and in dotted lines in FIG. 2, so that the splicer is now ready for use.

The ends of the tape which are to be spliced together are placed on the central portion 71 of an anvil 70 which is shown most clearly in FIG. 10. This anvil 70 may be made of a suitable plastic material, for example, and beyond its central portion 71 the anvil 70 has a pair of elongated portions 72 of a lesser Width than and symmetrically arranged with respect to the central portion 70. The upper wall of the support means 42 has integrally formed therewith four elongated, substantially rectangular bosses 73 and the central portion 71 extends between the right and left pairs of bosses 73 shown in FIG. 10 while each elongated portion 72 is received between a pair of the bosses 73 as shown in FIG. 10. As is particularly apparent from FIG. 5, when the holding arms 40 are in their lower positions the resilient portions 52 carried thereby will press the tape against the anvil 71 at the elongated portions 72 thereof so that in this way the holding arms 40 serve to hold the tape in position while the splice is being made.

Just behind the anvil 70 the upper wall 44' of the support means 42 is formed with an opening 74, and from the rear edge of the opening 74 projects a tongue 75 integral with the Wall 44 and having the cross sectional configuration shown most clearly in FIG. 4, while on opposite sides of the tongue 75 adjacent its front end are located a pair of ribs 76 which are integral with the wall 44 and which have upper surfaces flush with the upper surface of the wall 44, and of course the upper surface of the tongue 75 is also flush with and forms a continuation of the upper surface of the wall 44.

Just to the rear of the wall 65 (FIG. 4) the support means 42 has a pair of portions 77 (FIG. 1) which are spaced from each other so as to define the elongated space 78 between the portions 77, and this space 78 terminates at its front end at the wall 65 while it is open at its rear end. The sides of the elongated space 78 are defined by a pair of side wall portions 79 of the support means 42, and each of these side Wall portions 79 is formed with an elongated notch 80, shown most clearly in FIG. 11 extending downwardly from the upper surface of the support means 42, and these notches 80 are of course aligned with each other and are of a semi-circular configuration at their lower ends.

The space 78 between the wall 79 is adapted to receive a roll 81 of an adhesive material such as any known adhesive tape one side of which is tacky and the other side of which is not tacky and of course as the adhesive material is' withdrawn from the roll 81 the exterior surface thereof always exposes the non-tacky surface of the adhesive material. The adhesive material 82 shown in FIG. 4 asit is withdrawn from the roll 81 thus has an upwardly directed nontacky surface and a downwardly directed tacky surface. The leading end of the adhesive material 82 is guided through the opening 74 onto the anvil 70. The upper face of the material 82 slides along the underside of the wall 44 and along the underside of the tongue 75, and only the side edges of the tacky underside of the tape 82 ride over the pair of small ribs 76 at their upper faces, so that in this way the tape is etficiently guided for movement to the anvil 70, and it will be noted that with this construction except for the very small extent of engagement of the tacky surface with the ribs 76 no part of the tacky surface of the adhesive material 82 can engage any part of the apparatus except the central portion 7 1 of the anvil 70 where the tacky surface of the adhesive material 82 is of course applied against the tape or the like which is to be spliced, so that in this way with this structure it is extremely convenient to handle the adhesive material. The roll 81 is supported for rotary movement on or together with a pulley 83 which has an integral shaft 84 the ends of which are respectively received 'in-the notches 80 with the shaft resting on the lower ends of these notches so that in this way the roll 81 is supported for free turning movement. Once the operator threads the leading end of the material 82 through the opening 74 along the underside of the wall 44 and the tongue 75 and over the ribs 76 the entire roll 81 may simply remain in the position indicated in FIG. 4 until the entire roll is consumed and when the arm is in its upper, inoperative position the free end of the material 82 is readily accessible to be pulled through the opening 74 and over the anvil 70.

As is shown most clearly in FIG. 1 the outer channel member 32 which is carried by the inner channel member or cutter-carrying arm 20 may be formed with a' pair of windows 85 through which the upper surface of the arm 20 is visible. 'When the outer channel member 32 is in the solid line position shown in FIG. 4 which positions the diagonal cutter 28 with respect to the anvil 70 a designation CUT may appear through one of the windows 85, this designation being printed on the upper surface of the wall 22, while in the dotted line position of the member 32 as shown in FIG. 4, the designation TRIM may appear through the other window 85, so that in this way through these designations the operator will recognize which operations are taking place in accordance with the position of the outer channel member 32 with respect to the inner channel member 20. The feature of the windows 85 and the indicia appearing therethrough does not form part of the present invention.

The operation of the above-described structure is believed to be clear. When a splice is to be made, the operator will remove the releasable holding means 60, in the manner described above, so that the spring 55 will then turn the cutter-carrying arm 20 to the dotted line position shown in FIG. 2 and to the position thereof shown in FIG. 3, so that in this way the anvil 70 will be exposed.

Any remnants of the adhesive material 82 which still cling to the anvil 70 will of course be removed therefrom so 7 that the entire upper surface of the anvil 70 is clean. The

elongated end portion of the tape is placed between the left pair of bosses 73 of FIG. 10 on the anvil 70 with the free end portion of this tape end extending across the central portion 71 and the tape which is placed in this way on the anvil can terminate adjacent the right pair of bosses 73. Then the other elongated free end portion of the tape is placed between the right pair of bosses 73 on top of the tape end which is already on the anvil 70, and the upper tape end can terminate adjacent the left pair of bosses 73. With the tapes thus placed on the anvil 70, the operator will turn the holding arms 40 down to the position indicated in FIG. 5 so that the members 52 which are carried by the arms 40 will engage the pair of elongated tape ends to hold them in position while the splice is being formed. The operator will new position the member 32 on the arm 20 so that the cutter 28 will be aligned with the anvil 70 when the arm 20 is turned downwardly by the operator, and with the cutters positioned in this Way the operator will bring the arm 20 down to the position indicated in FIG. 4 so that the diagonal cutter 28 will cut across the pair of tape ends to provide a diagonal cut through the pair of overlapping tape ends. At this stage of the process it is onlyimportant that the blade 28 extend beyond the edges of the tape which is being spliced so that the left position of the body 27 shown in FIG. 4 need not be precisely determined since the exte ut'to which the blade 28 extends beyond the side edges of the pair of overlapping tapes is of no consequence, the only important factor being that the blade 28 extends beyond the edges of the pair of overlapping tapes.

Having thus provided a diagonal cut through the pair of overlapping tape ends, the operator will release the member 32 so that the spring 55 will return the arm 20 to its upper inoperative position. Now the operator will remove the free end portion of the upper tape which extends beyond the diagonal cut which has just been provided by the blade 28. Then the operator will pull the adhesive material 82 forwardly beyond the opening 74 and place the adhesive material against the upper faces of the 'pair of tape ends with the adhesive material extending on both sides of the diagonal cut through the pair of tape ends so that the pair of tape ends are now joined together by the adhesivematerial. Any time after the diagonal out has been provided by the blade 28 the operator will shift the member 32 from the solid line position of FIG. 4 to the dotted line position of FIG. 4 so' that the trimming cutters 30 will now be aligned with the anvil 70 when the arm 20 is again turned down by the operator, and these trimming cutters 30 should of course be precisely positioned with respect to the side edges of the tape so as to' properly trim these side edges, and this precise positioning is provided by the adjustable screw 25 in a manner described above. The blades 30 since they are of arcuate configuration trim away not only the adhesive material but also part of the side edges of the tape itself so that when the tape with a completed splice travels through the recorder there will be no overhanging adhesive portions to contact the mechanism of the recorder. Thus, the operator will now turn the arm 20 downwardly and the trimming cutters 30 will trim the splice whereupon the operator releases the arm 20 so that the spring 55 returns the arm 20 to its upper inoperative position, and now the operator can remove the spliced tape ends from the splicer. There will remain on the anvil the portion of the lower tape end which extends beyond the diagonal cut formed by the blade 28, and this latter portion of the tape can be removed as well as any portions of the adhesive material which remain on the anvil. The operator can now return the arm 20 to its lower position and place the releasable holding means 60 in its operative position holding the arm 20 downwardly against the spring 55.

It should be noted that the arm 32 not only makes it very easy to shift the cutters because of its relatively large size, as described above, but also because the arm 7 32 extends to a considerable distance forwardly beyond the arm 20 when the arm 32 is in the dotted line position of FIG. 4 the lever arm provided by the assembly of the channel members 20 and 32 is increased when the trimming cutters 30 are in their operative position so that the pair of cuts which are simultaneously made by the cutters 30 can nevertheless be very easily effected by the operator because of the greater leverage resulting from movement of the arm 32 from the solid line position thereof shown in FIG. 4 to the dotted line position shown in FIG. 4.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, may also find a useful application in other types of splicers differing from the types described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in tape splicers, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any Way from the spirit of the present invention.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can by applying current knowledge readily adapt it for various applications without omittting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention and, therefore, such adaptations should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalence of the following claim.

What is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

In a splicer, in combination, support means having a bottom surface adapted to rest on a table and including at an elevation higher than said bottom surface a substantially horizontal wall formed with an opening passing therethrough, said wall carrying at a rear edge of said opening a tongue which extends forwardly into said opening and at opposed side edges of said opening a pair of ribs which extend laterally toward each other from said side edges of said opening into the latter; and a raised plastic anvil carried by said horizontal wall adjacent and forwardly of said opening thereof, so that an elongated strip of adhesive material only one side of which is tacky can be guided along the underside of said horizontal wall through said opening with the non-tacky surface of said strip engaging the underside of said Wall and the underside of said tongue to be guided thereby over said ribs with only side edges of the tacky surface of the strip engaging said -ribs and the strip extending from said ribs to a position located over said anvil.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 440,928 11/ 1890 Schenck 225- 441,669 12/1890 Jones 225-88 679,167 7/1901 Garding 83-589 2,185,985 1/1940 Lund 83-607 2,565,009 8/ 1951 Wallingsford 156-505 2,577,570 12/ 1951 Eisenberg 156-502 2,668,576 2/1954 Nichols 156-505 2,778,420 1/ 1957 Simon 156-505 3,110,210 11/1963 Post 83-589 3,125,272 3/1964 Hennessey et al. 226-196 3,143,270 8/1964 Cohen 226-196 EARL M. BERGERT, Primary Examiner.

D. J, DRUMMOND, Assistant Examiner. 

